1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic circuits. More specifically, the present invention relates to a monolithic power supply.
2. Related Art
A wide variety of devices utilize electrical power. Such devices often include one or more power supplies to regulate and/or convert an input electrical power signal, such as that provided by a 60 Hz AC power line, into one or more output electrical power signals. These output electrical power signals may be used to power electrical circuits in these devices.
While power supplies are widely used, they do pose some design challenges. In particular, many power supplies include bulky components, such as transformers, that make integration with other components more difficult. This is unfortunate, since integration allows the cost of manufacturing, as well as the size and/or weight of the devices to be reduced.
Some existing computers provide an illustration of these challenges. In computers, a separate power supply is often coupled to the motherboard using a cable harness and a multi-pin connector, such as an ATX connector. Mechanical interference associated with the multi-pin connector also poses constraints on the motherboard size and layout. In particular, to allow mechanical access to the multi-pin connector there is often a de-forested region surrounding it on the motherboard. These limits on integration increase the overall footprint and cost of computers, such as personal computers, in both the standard and tower configurations.
What is needed, therefore, are compact power supplies to overcome the problems listed above.